Monday, December 22, 2008

Distributing Donations and Meeting the Cumpar Family -- Monday, December 8

On Monday morning, after breakfast, Michael and I went our separate ways. Michael went off to the vet clinic (which he will write about later on), and I hopped a tuk-tuk with Angela and Sarah H. to Sharon's.

We stopped for water before we got to the bridge, and I took the opportunity to snap a few up-close tuk-tuk shots.

And then we were back at Sharon's! First, we took all of the finished tamale baskets back out into the courtyard. They had been moved into the enclosed patio right outside her house overnight, so the dogs could be let out. Sharon has taken in about 20 stray dogs, which stay in enclosures during the day.

I unloaded a good portion of the donations we had taken down and brought them to the toy and clothing stations.

The members of the group helped sort through the piles of clothing.

And the young Mayan Families staff helped get ready for the onslaught of mothers and children.


After I had been there about an hour, I saw a familiar face coming in the gate! It was Juana and Candelaria's mother...followed by her children!


I wrote a lengthy guest blog post about our meeting for the Helping Mayan Families group site. Please check it out here: http://helpingmayanfamilies.org/Blog.aspx?ID=17


We had fun finding toys for the kids.

Rafael loved his large Beanie Baby cat.

Maritza had a cuddly teddy bear.


And Candelaria found a stuffed polar bear (the frog was for her little brother). By the way, the "X" on her hand means that she already picked out a toy, and the "Z" stood for Zapatos or shoes. With hundreds of children coming in each day, we had to have a way to mark who had already been served.

And I finally got to see Juana's baby!

Despite our worries during her pregnancy, little Edgar Antonio turned out a big baby!

Candelaria with the necklace I brought her.

The kids loved to pose with their toys.

A family portrait: mom, Candelaria, and Rafael.

Rafael and his big sister.

A self-portrait of me and the kids.

It was so wonderful to see them again. If you're new to my blog, you can read all about the first time we met.

Next post: the rest of Monday! This was just the morning!

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